Washing-machine



(No Model.)

A. E. WORDEN. WASHING MACHINE.

No. 498,957. Patented Mar. 21, 1893.

fikadzww. 212ml? 'Mm UNrrED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

WASHING- MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forrning part of Letters Patent No. 493,957, dated March21, 1893.

Serial No. 434,860. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern..-

Be it known that I, ASA E. WORDEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Philadelphia,in the county of Philadelphia and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inWashing-Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to that class of washing machines which are usedto wash clothes, and its object is to squeeze with great force the bunchof clothing which is being washed, then to permit the bunch to roll intoanother position while the squeezer or dasher recedes so that the nextaction of the dasher will be to squeeze the water out of the clothing ina dilferent direction, and by thus repeatedly squeezing the clothes invarious directions and permitting them to soak in water after eachsqueezing, to rapidly dissolve the dirt and force it out of the clothingwithout injury to the most delicate fabric thereof, and without knockingoff buttons, and particularly to obtain the great squeezing forcerequired with the least practicable outlay of strength by the operator.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and combination ofparts forming a washing machine, hereinafter described and claimedreference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure I, is a front view of a washing machine according to myinvention. Fig. II, is a transverse vertical section of the same at line00, Fig. I.

5 represents the wash tub, consisting of a box with parallel sides andends, the bottom being preferably curved in a cylindrical arc whosecenter line is at 6.

7 represents the dasher which is pivoted by its side arms 8 to the endsof the tub at the center line 6, and it is provided with a lightcrossbar 9 which serves as a handle by means of which the dasher is tobe reciprocated in operation.

10 represents two fluted washboards standing along the sides of the tuband vertically within the arc of the tub bottom and forming an inwardangle with the said arc, and an upward angle with the side of the dasherhead 11, when the latter is at the end of its arc of motion as shown indotted lines 12. The lower side 13 of the dasher head 11 is much widerthan its upper side or edge 14, so thatthe dasher acts like a hoe totake the clothes up from the bottom of the tub and to prevent smallpieces getting below the dasher and clogging its movement.

15 represents bumpers consisting of portions of the sides of the tublocated parallel with the adjacent faces of the dasher head, betweenwhich bumpers and the said dasher head, the bunch of clothes beingwashed, is squeezed at every stroke of the dasher.

16 represents balance weights, one pair of which may be hung upon eachside-arm 8, of the dasher by means of horizontal arms 17, supportedmidway upon vertical arms 18; and each pair of weights is located ashort dis tance below the common pivotal line 6, to overbalance theweight of the handle a little and act as a unit in restoring the dasherto its normal vertical position when free to swing. The arms 18 areattached at 19 directly to the arms 8 and supported by means of lugs 20and the bearing pivots at 6.

By making the two weights of each pair to exactly balance each other itrequires but a few ounces pull or push upon the handle 9 to swing thedasher through its whole are of movement and yet if a quick pull or pushbe made the squeezing eifect at the end of the stroke is multiplied bythe momentum of both weights.

The horizontal arms enable me to locate the weights at a greaterdistance from center than couldbe done if the weight were hung on avertical arm which had to pass close to the floor thus obtaining greatereffect from a given amount of weight.

It is a well known principle of physics that the effect of impact ofmoving bodies is proportional directly as the weights are to each otherand as their velocities squared, then if I place the same amount ofweight twice as far from center it moves through twice as great an arcin a given time and produces four times the effect; or by dividingone-half the weight and placing the two quarters at the ends of myhorizontal arms twice as far from center as the floor will permit ahanging weight to be, I still obtain double the effect with that half.By this means the efficiency of the washing machine is greatly increasedand a single person may with this machine do more washing in a giventime than two or three could do with a hanging weight machine.

One pair of weights instead of two would obtain some of the advantagesof my invention, and that one pair may be both located at one end of themachine or one weight of a pair may be located at one end and the otherweight at the other end of the machine, but in any case the two weightsshould be hung at horizontally opposite sides of the pivot so as tocounterbalance each other. The bottom of the tub may be a series ofplane surfaces instead of a cylindrical are but the'latter is better.

Theinward angular slant of the washboards relative to the tub bottomcauses the clothes to roll together into a smaller bunch .as the dasheradvances and when the squeeze takes place between the dasher and bumperit is very effective because of the compactness of the roll of clothes.I

Having thus fully described my invention, what Ibelieve to be new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following:

The combination in a washing machine, of a tub provided with bumpers atits sides; a dasher pivotally hung to reciprocate therein between thebumpers and provided with a vertically projecting handle; a pair of armsconnected with the handle outside of the tub, and located below thepivots and projecting in opposite directions from the vertical plane ofthe pivots; and weights located upon those arms at opposite sides of thepivots to balance each other, the united weight of the arms and weightsa little overbalancing the handle, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ASA E. VVORDEN. Witnesses:

E. M. DAWSON, M. O. HILLYARD.

